Fusion Romance
by Darkflier
Summary: Team Aqua and Magma's alliance strengthens a romance between their commanders, but when one wants to run, will the other agree, or will they end up in ruins? Based off of the rom hack 'Pokemon Fusion'. I own nothing.


"Ally with Team Magma?" Shelly choked out, starring at her boss in a combination of disgust and confusion. Team Magma were their sworn enemies. Archie sighed, "I know Shelly, but think, neither of us has made much progress on our own, allying may be our best bet." Shelly hung her head in defeat, she had learned a long time ago that there was no point in arguing with Archie once he had made his mind up. She dismissed herself and slipped out of Team Aqua's base.

Shelly wandered along the beach, starring out at sea. She still couldn't believe Archie, working with Team Magma would be bad enough, but they were leaving Hoenn for Kanto. Great, people could confuse them with the idiots from Team Rocket. Shelly sighed as she stretched out on the sand, staring up at the stars. Suddenly footsteps behind her caught her attention. She pulled herself up, but before she could turn around, arms closed around her. "So did you get the talk?" Shelly turned around, facing Tabitha, and nodded. He smirked as the two sat down in the sand, "So now that we're allies, what are we supposed to do?" Shelly curled up against him, "I don't think we should let the Persian out of the bag just yet. That could result in trouble", she mumbled sleepily. Tabitha nodded, "I don't think I'll complain about having constant access to your lips though. And speaking of which..." Shelly's laugh was cut off by a kiss. In a well practiced motion she brushed the hood of Tabitha's uniform back, letting her fingers skim his scalp as she lowered her hand. After a few moments of heated kissing the two broke apart.

Shelly curled back up against him, letting the sound of Tabitha's heartbeat soothe her shattered nerves. "You're the only reason I'm not running." she said, hoping it didn't sound like a guilt trip. A few weeks ago, when Archie had been considering disbanding Team Aqua she had suggested that they run away together. Tabitha had refused, he still wouldn't tell her why. "Give it a shot. After a few weeks it might seem better. And if you can't stand staying we can run." Shelly sighed sadly, that was probably as good as she was going to get. "Fine. I had better get going before Archie sends someone to look for me."

One month. That was how long it took for Shelly's life to get turned on it's head. How long she had before she had to start taking orders from Maxie as well as Archie. How long it took for her to loose any hope she had in getting out of going with to Kanto. And how long she had to figure out how she was supposed to be able to trust 30 people who she had spent the past 4 years fighting.

Shelly studied her reflection in the mirror. She was in her room in the new base. So far she didn't like Kanto very much, or (most) of her new co-workers, or the base. In her opinion how ever, the new uniform was the lowest blow of them all. It consisted of an olive green midriff, which she was fine with, gray shorts, which were way to short for her taste, olive green socks that came up past her knees, which she hated, gray boots, which she didn't mind, and olive green gloves that came up to her elbows with holes for her fingers. In her opinion that defeated the purpose of gloves. In short, she felt way to exposed. She picked her knife up off her bed and neatly cut her hair just below her shoulder blades. That made her feel better, for some reason.

"Well you look lovely." Shelly glanced towards the door to see Tabitha slipping in. "Am I going to be hearing that more often now due to the amount of skin this uniform shows?" Shelly asked dryly. Tabitha's uniform stuck to the same color scheme as hers, the only major differences being that everything was full length and he didn't have gloves, meaning the muscles in his arms were exposed, something Shelly had no problems with. A smile tugged at Tabitha's lips as he shook his head, "You know I don't see you like that." Shelly smiled faintly as she walked over, her arms wrapping around his neck as their lips touched. She felt Tabitha's hands settle on her hips. After a few moments they pulled apart. "And that's why I love you." she murmured, "Now did you come in here for a few kisses, or is someone looking for me?" Tabitha laughed as he let go of her, "We're supposed to talk about how we want to divide up our jobs." Shelly rolled her eyes, "I don't honestly care. I just want any solo missions." No sooner did she say this than she let out a yelp as Tabitha picked her up, "Sounds good to me. Now what did you say about a kiss?" Shelly closed her arms around his neck, "A kiss? I was thinking several."

That evening as Shelly was getting ready for bed, it would be the first night at the new base, she was trying to come up with a way to convince Tabitha that they should leave. She desperately wanted to. But how could she convince him? She sighed sadly as she tugged her socks off and climbed into her bed. She didn't bother changing clothes, there wasn't enough fabric on her uniform for it to get wrinkled. No sooner did she doze off, than she was plunged into a familiar nightmare.

She was ten, her parents had just divorced and neither of them had wanted to take care of her. Her father had finally decided to, and had been a decent parent for a whole three hours before alcohol had turned him into a monster. "You are nothing! You hear me? Nothing!" he shouted at her. Shelly let out a scream and covered her face with her arms as a knife slashed at her.

"Tabi-", Shelly clamped her hand over her mouth to stop her scream. She sat there trembling, sweat gluing her hair and clothes to her. Suddenly a voice from the door pulled her out of her panic, "You called?" Shelly glanced over to see Tabitha standing in the doorway, a half concerned half amused look on his face. "I'm fine. Just a bad dream. Sorry I woke you." she panted out. Tabitha closed the door and moved to the bed, sitting down on the edge. Shelly felt his hand on her shoulder, "Do you want to talk about it?" She shook her head, fighting tears,"No I... Can you stay? At least until I fall asleep?" Tabitha nodded after a moment, "If you want." With that he slid under the blanket, his arms closing protectively around Shelly as they laid down .

Tabitha fell asleep long before Shelly did. Shelly stayed up, both enjoying the comfort of his arms, and thinking about her dream. After her father had attacked her with the knife she had run. She had spent the next six years living on the streets, to scared and shy to try and get help. Then when she was sixteen she had faked an I.D and got a job as a waitress in a bar. Shelly was wanted for murder, but she regretted nothing more than getting that job. Half drunk customers would offer money in exchange for a kiss, or, if they were particularly hopeful, to have her for the night. Normally she could refuse, but when money had been really tight...she hadn't had much of a choice. Then, after three years of that, one day Archie had found her sobbing at the beach. He had offered her a position in Team Aqua, and she had foolishly accepted. She had been thinking that it would have been better, never had she been more wrong. Instead of dealing with drunken idiots she had to deal with hardened criminals who couldn't see past a woman's breast. After two years as a grunt she had worked her way to the post of Tactical Commander, gaining her both respect and security. But even then she had remained jumpy, plagued by nightmares and panic attacks. And the constant fear of what would happen if the rest of the team saw how weak she really was. Then she and Tabitha had ended up stranded on an island together and had fallen in love. He was the one person who knew about what she had been through, as well as the one person she would except sympathy from. Without him, if she some how lost him, Shelly wasn't sure if she would be able to handle it. With a sigh she curled up closer to Tabitha, trying to clear her mind. After a while she went back to sleep.

When Shelly woke up the next morning it took her a moment to remember where she was. She quietly rolled over, facing Tabitha. He was still asleep, a faint smile on his face. Shelly idly ran her hand along his cheek. What time was it? Probably pretty early, she could see through the small window that the sun was just starting to rise. Next to her Tabitha shifted, waking up. "Good morning beautiful." he murmured in her ear. Shelly smiled softly as she turned back to him, "Good morning." she whispered, a playful look glimmering in her eyes. She shivered slightly as she felt Tabitha's hand run up her side, from her hip to her cheek before his lips pressed against hers. Shelly ran her hand over his muscles, enjoying what would probably be the last kiss for a while. Slowly and regretfully they pulled apart. "I should go." Tabitha murmured as he ran a hand through Shelly's hair. Shelly sighed sadly, "Alright. See you in a bit."

Pride was the only thing that kept Shelly from pathetically begging Tabitha for help. Learning her way around the base was bad enough, add that to the fact that she ducked out of sight every time she caught sight of Archie or Maxie, and she had more on her plate than she could handle already. Plus the fact that there were almost 30 new faces to match with names, and she felt like she was drowning.

Tabitha had offered several times to give Shelly a quick run through on the names and personalities of her 'new ' assistants, but Shelly had refused. She learned better on her own. Now she was regretting it. She considered finding an empty closet to hide in for a few hours, but she didn't feel like ending up in trouble.

The week dragged on like this. Shelly slowly sank into a routine, though that did little to improve her mood. Tabitha spent the nights with her, Shelly was worried someone would see him, but she needed him.

It didn't take long for Shelly's worries to become reality. She was sorting through files, trying to decide what needed to be kept. Suddenly she felt a hand brush her hip. There was just enough pressure behind the touch to tell her it hadn't been an accident. The lack of teasing whisper told her it wasn't Tabitha, she had just seen Archie in his office, and a grunt wouldn't dare, meaning there was only one person it could be. Shelly spun around to see an amused looking Maxie. "Did you need something sir?" she said through gritted teeth. Maxie smirked, "Yes. Who was that I saw going into your room last night? Around one? It didn't look like you..." "I make a habit of being asleep by midnight. Perhaps you saw Tabitha returning to his room and thought it was to mine." Shelly could feel her heart pounding, of all the people to get caught by, it would have to be Maxie. "That must have been it." Maxie agreed. "Anything else?" Shelly asked. Maxie nodded as he pulled out a folder, "You and Tabitha are going to be spending the next week in Cerulean, acquiring that researcher Bill's Pokemon fusion machine." Shelly took the folder, gave an irritable nod and dismissed herself. As she darted back to her room she felt like singing, alone with Tabitha for a week! That would definitely be enough time to convince him that they should leave.

Once Shelly reached her room she opened the folder, the blueprints of Bill's house, and a map of Cerulean City. No information, or reason for why they needed the machine. Suddenly she felt arms close around her. Shelly let out a yelp, before realizing it was Tabitha. "You jerk!" she snapped as she spun around. Tabitha raised an eyebrow, "There a reason for the short temper?" Shelly scowled, "Maxie keeping his slimy hands off my hips might improve my mood, admittedly." That got a reaction out of Tabitha, a worried look crossed his face. Satisfied, Shelly perched herself on the edge of her bed, "Sorry I snapped." she said after a moment. Tabitha raised an eyebrow, "You've tried to kill me, and I get an apology from you because you snapped?" Shelly scowled, "You're impossible." "Love you to." he mused. Shelly spared a laugh before asking, "Did you hear about our mission next week?" Tabitha nodded, "I suppose you're going to say that we should run?" Shelly nodded, giving him a pleading look, "It's the only chance we're going to get for a while. It makes sense to go while they're expecting us to be busy, then we'd have a week before they notice that we're gone." "And when they come looking for us?" Tabitha asked. Shelly shook her head in exasperation, "They won't, they've got almost 60 people to chose replacements from. Why come after us?" Tabitha started to argue, but Shelly flopped back onto the bed, her arms near her head as she studied him, trying to look innocent, "Please?" Tabitha grabbed Shelly's hands, leaning over her to stop her from moving, "Are you really going to stoop to that level?" he hissed, failing to hide his smile. Shelly turned her head playfully to the side and flashed a grin, "Don't tell me you're complaining." She felt Tabitha's lips press against her neck before he whispered, "Alright, fine. We can run. But first..." Shelly tensed slightly when she noticed something metal being slid onto one of her fingers. She yanked her hand out of his grip, to see a gold ring. "Well?" Tabitha asked. It took Shelly a couple seconds to process everything, before she managed to choke out, "Are you asking me to..." Tabitha nodded his eyes not leaving her face. Shelly could feel tears running down her cheeks as she whispered, "Yes."


End file.
